Ethiopia’s Minister Of Peace: The Country’s Most Powerful Woman?

It was only last week when Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced the formation of a Ministry for Peace, at the time its mandate was said to be unclear.

Days on, the ministry’s mandate has all but become clearer and handed to a history maker, Muferiat Kamil. Kamil, Ethiopia’s first woman speaker of parliament was named first Peace Minister in an equally historic cabinet.

Abiy presented a gender balanced cabinet to the House of Peoples Representatives, HPR, and had it duly approved. Muferiat was one of ten women on the cabinet with 10 male appointees completing the set.

She is also the sole female leader on the four-bloc coalition. When she was voted speaker back in April 2014, she replaced Abadula Gemeda of the Oromo bloc – then OPDO now ODP, who had been in the role since 2010.

Reports indicate that Muferiat’s role has a peace title but spans a high security structure. According to the Addis Standard portal, the Ministry of Peace will oversee the National Intelligence & Security Service (NISS).

It will further oversee: the National Disaster Risk Management Commission; the Administration for Refugee and Returnee Affairs; Ethiopian Foreign Relations Strategic Studies Institute; and the Main Department For Immigration & Nationality Affairs.

Abiy makes good a promise on gender parity

Back in April, one of the biggest issues raised by legislators during Abiy’s presentation of his cabinet was the absence of women on the list.

He promised that more women will be named in a subsequent list. Abiy seems just to have stuck to his word six months on.

Abiy became the first ethnic Oromo to become PM. His first cabinet reshuffle in April brought in 29 ministers. Ten of them being new entrants, six reassigned portfolios.

Brief about Minister Muferiat Kamil

In 2008, Muferiat Kamil, became Minister of Women’s Affairs at the age of 32, at the time, the youngest appointee of the late Meles Zenawi.

She was born in Jimma, the largest city in south-western Ethiopia. She Graduated from Haramaya University with BSc. degree in Agriculture in 2000.

She held different women affairs roles and from 2002 till her appointment as Public Relations Advisor to the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR) President in 2007.

She has worked at the EPRDF office in Addis Ababa in April 2008, then as a junior public relations officer till her appointment as Minister of Women’s Affairs.